Kill the Band!
by Winter's Realm
Summary: Even the most relaxed event can get turned into complete chaos when Anakin and Ahsoka show up. While taking down a petty criminal, the pair ends up accidentally ruining a party. Padmé's party. The one she arranged for some Senators who are new to the Republic. (Oops). An Anakin and Ahsoka friendship fic!


**Kill the Band!**

**Summary:** Even the most relaxed event can get turned into complete chaos when Anakin and Ahsoka show up. While taking down a petty criminal, the pair ends up accidentally ruining a party. Padmé's party. The one she arranged for some Senators who are new to the Republic. (Oops). Anakin and Ahsoka friendship!

**The ending of Season Five really highlighted just how far Ahsoka's character has developed. And while I think it's awesome that she had the guts to make that change and walk away from the Order after the Council treated her like they did, I do miss the Anakin and Ahsoka friendship. So, I decided to write a little story about our favourite Master/Padawan team! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own The Clone Wars. **

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"Can you see him, Snips?" Anakin asked, fluidly leaping over a large trash can and sprinting down a narrow alleyway.

Ahsoka groaned, launching into a flip over the obstacle and following her Master, who was several strides ahead of her. It was rather unfair that his legs were longer than hers. Keeping up with the powerful Jedi Master over long distances was a slight problem and occasionally led to Anakin (jokingly) calling her 'slow'. But Anakin's mirth and sarcastic _'Ooh, you poor thing. Just do the best you can'_ whenever she pointed out that he had an unfair advantage had led to her deciding that some things (such as a Padawan pointing out to her stubborn Jedi Master that he was just. Plain. _Wrong)_ weren't worth it. "No. He's not here," she replied, panting lightly as the two Jedi raced around a corner and past an entrance to one of Coruscant's more sleazy bars.

Recently, the Clone Troopers monitoring criminal activity in Coruscant's Underworld had observed an increase in crime and violence. After some research, it had been found that a Human Male named Rayf Zythor was responsible. He'd been taking advantage of the Jedi being preoccupied by the war effort and decided that the lack of Peacekeepers provide a good opportunity to make some extra credits. Over the past couple of months, he'd been attacking citizens for money and stealing weapons from Clone Troopers to sell illegally on the black market.

Zythor was a petty criminal. But he was also one that would need taking down before things got out of hand. Although Ahsoka had actually been the one assigned with capturing Zythor, Anakin had decided that he also wanted a piece of the action and decided to accompany his Padawan.

"We really should've taken a speeder," Ahsoka commented, dive rolling through a gap in a wall. "Remind me again why we didn't?"

Anakin, who had taken the lengthier route of climbing over the wall, gave a grunt before replying. "I thought capturing him would be easier than this! Our sources said that he was at the Cantina. It's not my fault they got it wrong,"

"You should've listened to me," Ahsoka smirked smugly at her Master. "It was my mission, after all,"

"Ha. Like anyone could call this a mission, Snips. It's just a simple job,"

"Well, you somehow managed to stuff it up, didn't you? It's because I listened to you that we're stuck in this mess. I said that we needed to take some sort of transport in case we needed to chase Zythor or hunt him down if he wasn't at the bar. Thanks to your _brilliant_ insight, we have to run around these streets when we could've been flying!"

"I wouldn't call this a mess," Anakin protested. "Just look upon it as extra fitness training,"

Ahsoka arched one white eye marking, turning to face her Master while continuing to sprint. "The only person around here who needs extra fitness training is you, Skyguy," she shot back with a grin.

"Hey! Who was struggling to keep up with me before?"

"Your legs are longer than mine!"

"Oh, you poor thing. Just do the best you can and take a little break when it all gets too much," Anakin sarcastically retorted with a tone of mock sympathy. Ahsoka didn't even bother to dignify that with a comment.

The pair raced around another corner, coming face to face with a colourful group of teenaged Twi'Leks and Rodians. The group had been talking and drinking and were startled by the sudden appearance of two Jedi. Anakin, unsurprisingly, just barrelled straight through the tipsy crowd whereas Ahsoka opted for the more courteous tactic of slowing down and allowing the slightly intoxicated citizens to clumsily scatter out of the way. Drinking in public was against the law, but right now the pair had bigger issues to attend to.

"Told you we should have used a speeder," Ahsoka quipped as she leapt around a blue skinned Rodian who'd fallen over during Anakin's stampede. The Chosen One, who was on the receiving end of quite a few dirty looks from the surrounding civilians, simply glared at his Padawan instead of answering. Ahsoka rolled her cerulean eyes at his grumpy expression. "Don't blame this on me!"

Anakin snorted. "Let's just find Zythor. If he's not at the bar then he should be on level 1234- our sources say he has an apartment there. We'll need to be quick, or someone might tip him off about us coming for him,"

"And our sources have done such a _great_ job of directing us so far," Ahsoka pointed out, sarcasm lacing her words.

Anakin opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by the chiming of Ahsoka's comlink. "Commander Tano here," she said, raising the flashing device and decreasing her pace to an easy jog as she answered the call.

"Commander, this is CT 94726 – Coruscant Guard. Zythor has been spotted on level 1248,"

Ahsoka caught Anakin's eye and flicked her head in the direction of the nearest turbo lift. Following his Padawan's signal, Anakin changed direction. "We're on our way," Ahsoka replied, cutting the connection as she ran after her Master.

After they had made it inside the lift and Anakin had punched in level 1248, he turned to his Padawan. "I told you I had this all under control," his smug remark was accompanied by an even smugger grin.

"Yeah _right_," Ahsoka gave an exasperated sigh and shook her head at her Master. "What's Zythor even doing on 1248? According to reports, he doesn't usually go up there,"

"Maybe someone tipped him off about us hunting him and he decided to run," Anakin suggested as the lift chimed, letting its occupants know that they had reached their destination. Ahsoka dashed eagerly out the sliding doors, closely followed by Anakin.

"So, where do we go now?" the Togruta asked, looking disgustedly around at the shabby posters and discarded bottles which littered the ground. In lower levels such as this one, rubbish was very common, but Ahsoka really disliked seeing the planet treated like a trash can. It wasn't like it was bad for the environment- after all, Coruscant practically _had_ no environment; even the weather was controlled- but such laziness and disregard for other civilians annoyed the Togruta.

"It would have been good if the officer was more specific." Anakin replied in an aggravated tone. "He could be anywhere. I guess we have a look around this level,"

Ahsoka scowled at his suggestion. "Great. _More_ running,"

The pair took off again, not going twenty meters before blaster fire began to burst around them. Pivoting sharply and igniting their lightsabers, Master and Padawan turned as one to face the threat.

"Up there! On that balcony," Ahsoka called, swinging her yellow shoto around in a reverse grip to deflect one bolt, before following through with a block from her green lightsaber. "We don't need to find him. It looks like he found us. It's Zythor," The Human Male had a distinctive tattoo in the shape of a skull on his bare right shoulder, blue eyes and a tall build, making him very easy to identify. _Clearly, this guy is an amateur,_ Ahsoka mused. Attacking Jedi and making himself easy to identify with a tattoo? It was a wonder that Zythor had been successful with all of his crimes so far.

Anakin ran towards the balcony, using the Force to leap up and chase Zythor. Ahsoka didn't bother to remind her Master that she had been the one assigned with this job and thus had the honorary right to take down the Human. She settled for glowering at her Master's back as she leapt up onto the balcony after him. Skyguy was stealing her thunder._ Again_.

Zythor, who had by now come to the intelligent decision that taking on two Jedi was_ probably not_ the best idea, was running along the balcony towards a parked speeder. Anakin and Ahsoka did their best to catch up with the criminal, but it was difficult to do so when Zythor kept turning around randomly and squeezing off shots in their direction, forcing the Jedi to proceed with an amount of caution.

"I _told_ you we should have taken a speeder!" Ahsoka grumbled as Zythor activated his transport and rode right off the balcony. Anakin didn't bother to reply to his Padawan's sassy remark and promptly launched himself off the terrace, reaching for the underside of Zythor's speeder. But the criminal had seen the Jedi Knight coming and accelerated away, forcing Anakin to land in a roll on the duracrete sidewalk. Swiftly following her Master, Ahsoka also leapt off the balcony and rolled to the ground. The pair recovered from the jump fast, getting up and racing down the street after their target.

While Zythor was nowhere near Cad Bane or even Aurra Sing's level of competence, he certainly had experience with losing anyone who gave chase. Whipping though a turn and changing streets, he entered a market square with Anakin and Ahsoka hot on his heels.

"We should com Master Kenobi and see if he can give us a lift," Ahsoka stated as she vaulted over a table, tucking her legs in as she went to avoid kicking a nearby Bothan in the face.

"Wait, _three_ Jedi to take down_ Zythor_? Snips, that's not just overkill, that's embarrassing!"

"Well, have _you_ got any _better_ ideas?"

"Ugh, I'm working on it," Anakin replied, swerving around a small Twi'Lek child and knowing that his Padawan wasn't going to let him live this one down.

"Work a little faster, Skyguy,"

"Don't sass me, Snips!"

Flipping over an astromech and ignoring a series of rude beeps from said droid, Ahsoka looked up just in time to see Zythor skim past a stall. The criminal stuck one leg out, pulling several boxed of Muja fruit over and causing the goods to roll across the ground. Civilians and droids alike went flying as they tripped over the fallen fruit.

"Master!" Ahsoka shouted in warning, but Anakin, who had charged ahead and was out of earshot, didn't see the fruit until it was too late. Knowing that this definitely wasn't the time to burst into laughter, the Togruta had to bite back a snigger as Anakin stumbled and made a rather undignified landing into an open trash can. "Smooth move, Master!" She called loudly, with a grin. He was going to chew her out for that one when they got back to the Temple.

Dusting himself off, the Jedi Knight gave a scowl as he watched his Padawan use the Force to clear a path through the fruit. "I was just going to do that," he commented.

"Sure," Ahsoka responded dryly as the pair continued the chase. "Of course you were,"

Zythor had left the market square and they had a lot of running to do to catch up. Sprinting down the street and away from the market place, the pair reached a junction.

"Where has he gone?" Anakin asked, examining each connecting street.

Unbeknownst to the pair, Zythor had taken a different route entirely. Master and Padawan, without knowing it, had taken a shortcut and were actually ahead of the criminal.

"Zythor incoming!" Ahsoka yelled, rolling out of the way as the criminal suddenly barrelled around a corner on his speeder, as shocked to see the Jedi standing in his path as they were to see him.

Reacting to his Padawan's warning quickly, Anakin stepped sideways and grabbed onto the speeder as it whizzed past. Zythor was aiming to fly off the sidewalk and enter an above traffic lane. Scrabbling for a handhold, Anakin realised that the criminal would escape and lose them if he didn't act fast. As the speeder rose into the air, Anakin finally managed to grab the underside of the vehicle.

Unfortunately, his plan would have worked a lot better if his foot hadn't gotten caught on his Padawan. When Ahsoka had initially rolled away from the speeder, she had gotten into a position where Anakin's foot caught on her as he skidded along the ground. So when Anakin took off into the air, Ahsoka had no choice but to reach up and grab his ankles or be kicked over the edge of the sidewalk.

Unluckily for the speeder's occupants, the craft hadn't been designed to carry one large criminal on top and a chain of Jedi on the bottom, so it began to lose altitude rather quickly. Zythor immediately steered the speeder towards the roof of a building, but underestimated just how fast his transport was going down. Instead of landing on the roof, the speeder smashed through a window and entered the building with a shower of glass shards.

Anakin and Ahsoka let go of the speeder before it could hit the ground and crush them, rolling to minimise the impact of crash landing as Zythor hurriedly leap out of his speeder and attempted to escape.

"Don't let him get away!" Anakin called.

"I'm on it!" Ducking through the crowd of people in the room and rolling under several tables, Ahsoka chased the criminal up a small flight of stairs and onto some sort of platform.

"Better stop there, Jedi," Zythor ordered as she reached the top of the stairs. That was when the Padawan noticed that the platform was actually a stage and in the time she had taken to climb the stairs, Zythor had scattered bombs all around it, trapping a terrified brass band.

Looking down from the platform to gain some sort of idea of what they had just interrupted, Ahsoka realised that some sort of party had been taking place before the intrusion. Below the stage was a group of about fifty well-dressed individuals from a variety of species who'd been dancing to the band's music before Zythor had taken over.

Well, that was not good.

"Jedi, it's not very good manners to crash a party you weren't invited to," Zythor grinned manically, wagging a finger in Ahsoka's direction in mock disapproval. "Come any closer, and I'll have to kill the band,"

"They've already stopped playing," Ahsoka, who was stalling for time, replied sardonically. Hopefully Anakin could evacuate the rest of the citizens while she kept Zythor distracted. This situation had turned messy, fast.

"No, no, no, not kill the music. Kill the _band_!" A dangerous glint in his eye, the criminal raised the detonator of the bombs up so that Ahsoka could see it.

"I didn't know you hated brass music _that_ much." Anakin announced, boldly Force-leaping onto the stage and simultaneously kicking the detonator away from Zythor. Reaching out a hand, the Jedi causally caught the small but lethal device as Ahsoka relived the criminal of any other weapons he had been carrying.

_Well, of course Master Skywalker wasn't going to be the one evacuating the citizens. _Ahsoka thought as she confiscated Zythor's viroblade. _He's always got to be the one saving the day in the most obvious way possible._

Kicking the weapons out of Zythor's reach, Ahsoka turned back and held in a groan as she watched her Master ignite his lightsaber and wave it dangerously close to the now-unarmed criminal's throat. A collective gasp went up from the audience at the sudden appearance of the weapon.

_He's not with me. I have no idea who he is._ Ahsoka thought, awkwardly looking away from her Master-that-wasn't-with-her and examining the stunned group. _What the heck am I meant to say? _"Master, you've got no sense of tact," she finally muttered.

Anakin merely raised one eyebrow at his Padawan, and Ahsoka wondered if he had taken it as a compliment. She wouldn't put it past him.

"Ana-Master Skywalker! What's going on?" A familiar voice rang out. Anakin jerked his head around, quickly scanning for source of the sound.

"P- Senator Amidala!" He gave a surprised grin as he saw Padmé stroll up to the base of the platform. The Jedi immediately tried to hide his delight at seeing the Senator as he remembered where they were. Ahsoka was pretty sure that he was trying to go for a neutral, detached expression- one that you would expect from a _textbook_ Jedi Knight- but he actually got something between 'dopey' and 'dazed'. Ahsoka rolled her eyes. It was a good thing the rest of the crowd was still shaken up over the sudden appearance of a criminal and two Jedi. Otherwise, Senator and Jedi Knight would find themselves with a lot of questions to answer. For two people who both had occupations which often required a deal of subtlety, the happy couple really should know better.

(Of course, Ahsoka wasn't going to let either of them know that she knew about the 'couple' part… or let anyone else know for that matter, either.)

"Sorry to crash the party. I had to track down a criminal- with the help of my Padawan- and things got a little out of hand," he replied to the Senator's question in a formal tone.

"'_I' had to track down a criminal"? "With the help of my Padawan"? _Ahsoka scowled at her Master. Just what exactly was she? Backup? This was _her _mission. Which would have been a lot more successful had Anakin not gotten involved and given her such helpful advice along the lines of 'we don't need a speeder' in the first place!

Releasing a pent up breath, Ahsoka relaxed as a thought occurred to her. This was the perfect opportunity for a little revenge.

"Yes, I'm very sorry," Ahsoka hid a smile as she pulled off a much more formal tone than Anakin could _ever _hope to accomplish. In fact, even the soft spoken, respectful Barriss Offee would have been proud this one. _Take that Skyguy_. "Regrettably, my Master did not bring the correct equipment for this mission, and it was because of this that Zythor evaded capture until we cornered him here. I do apologise for the interruption we have caused," _ugh, too much flowery language_. _How can Barriss even speak like this? _She watched gleefully as several members of the crowd frowned, clearly not knowing who to believe. But what was the most amazing sight was the priceless look on Anakin's face.

"Please forgive my Padawan, I think she is-"

Ahsoka held up a hand. "Don't worry about my Master, he just-"

Padmé gave a small cough, gaining the attention of the crowd, who were having a hard time following the confusingly competitive conversation between Master and Padawan. "I thank you for you valiant efforts in stopping the criminal, Master Skywalker and Padawan Tano," she turned to face the crowd. "Although this was rather unexpected, this event showcases just how great the security is here in the Republic,"

"Padmé," Anakin whispered in a low tone so that the crowd couldn't hear him. "What exactly did we just crash?"

His wife gave him an icy look. "This occasion was a welcome for several Senators who are new to the Republic," The volume that statement was spoken in might have been soft, but her tone certainly wasn't.

Ahsoka gave another snigger as she watched her Master give a small, strangled "I see," Sometimes it was nice to know that The Hero with No Fear wasn't as powerful as he thought he was. The Chosen One occasionally needed a bit of a kick in the ego.

Even if it was from his wife.

"Good job, Master," Ahsoka grinned as she tied Zythor's hands behind his back with a pair of stuncuffs. "I'm sure that deep down, Padmé's proud of you for being such a hero. After all, she looked so relieved to see you when Zythor burst into the party and started taking brass bands hostage." she said smugly, ignoring the curious look that her Master threw her way. The Chosen One had tensed, clearly not too sure what to make of her words. After all, that statement could be taken several different ways.

But Ahsoka just gave an innocent grin_. _Sometimes, it was good to keep the Master guessing. _  
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**Thanks for reading! :)**

**Edit update: Thanks to Count Mallet for catching an error! It's fixed now :)**


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